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Friday, March 26, 2010

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The Bruins are like an abusive spouse. They make us feel secure and loved with wins and promises of sixth place, but then they turn around, call us a “bitch”, and slap us in the face.

The Bruins lost to the Lightning last night. The Tampa Bay Lightning. The Tampa Bay Lightning with only one player worth mentioning (What’s up, Steven Stamkos?). At this point, the Bruins hold onto eighth place by two points. The Atlanta Thrashers and the New York Rangers are right behind them. The Bruins will probably make the playoffs, right? I think. Maybe.

This season, you never know what you’re going to get. Will fans see an impenetrable Tuukka Rask and a top-notch defense or will we see a less-impressive Tuukkinator and a sloppy defense? Will fans see an offense full of scoring ability or an offense that struggles to get two goals? It’s gotten to the point where followers and analysts can’t really base predictions on any facts or figures either. The B’s have beaten teams like the Flyers and the Sabres, they can even usually win against teams directly below them, and then they go and lose to teams like the Lightning and the Maple Leafs.WHAT IS GOING ON?

Is anyone else insanely confused? I mean, on any given night I have no idea if I’m going to walk away from a game pleased or ripping my hair out regardless of whether they play the Capitals or the Hurricanes. Chances are, they’ll lose both.

There’s a great piece in the Globe right now asking, “Do you believe in the Bruins?” and ending with, “get back to me tomorrow.” I’m not sure anything better sums up the feeling of most fans right now. Don’t misunderstand me; we all want to believe in the Bruins, but on any given night it’s tough to decide. They’ve got, in my opinion, the hottest goalie in the league in Tuukka Rask, they’ve got some of the best grinders in the league (I shuddered a bit using that term), and they’ve got a few guys that can find the net. Not enough, but a few. Oh, and what should be a strong defense. However, and that’s a big however, they can’t pull it together. Why? Maybe Venus is in the wrong position, maybe they’ve got the flu, maybe someone is injured, maybe they’re worried about a zit. I wouldn’t discount any of these things, it’s a bigger mystery than being in love.

Perhaps what I’m most worried about is becoming a team who takes one step forward and two steps back. The Bruins of last year were phenomenal. They played like they had everything to lose, every single game, and I was excited every game night. This year, they seem to have become complacent. It’s as if they think because they were good last year, they’ll be good again this year. They’ve forgotten how hard they worked. Does this mean that next year they’ll remember what they have to do and be on top of the Eastern Conference? And then the year after suck it up again?

My weak mental constitution can’t handle that bipolar play. If this is the start of a rollercoaster pattern, I’m going to beat the crap out of Shawn Thornton.

Samantha Lewis is a conference production assistant by day and a sports writer by night. She could win in a fight against Shawn Thornton. You can read more from her at Beantown Athletic Supporters.